Spring Has Sprung

I love Spring when all the earth is covered in blooms of every color. It's also a sign of warmer weather, which as most of you may know, I HATE cold weather!  I love walking around the yard and seeing all the new things blooming in the yard. My Red Buckeye bloomed for the fist time this year. I've been waiting on that for a few years now.  They don't last long and they are not extremely showy, but if you get close, they have pretty blooms.

I got a couple of irises at the Kolache Festival last year and they bloomed this year.  Unfortunately, I don't know the species names.  I LOVE purple and I think these are just gorgeous!  Check out this one with the yellow top (click the image to see a larger version).  Even the beard has a "petal" on it.  I've never seen anything like that and I think it's really cool.  If anyone knows what these are, please comment and let me know.

The birds are happy too.  I look forward to the Purple Martins showing up in March and I TRY to keep the House Sparrows' nests cleared out of my bird house.  I got some new pins to put in my poles to make it a little easier to move up and down this year.  I love the sound they make and they can gladly have all the mosquitos they can eat!  I also have to be diligent on keeping the House Sparrows out of my bluebird houses. They have come through earlier scouting out the boxes.  Click the More Images link below and you can see video and hear the Martins' calls.

The hummingbirds are in for their first wave in March/April as well. The poor little things are so skinny and they are starving. I always make sure to clean the feeders and keep the solution fresh for them.  We normally just get the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, but every once in a while, I see a Rufus come through. For such tiny things, they can be fiesty and make a surprising amount of clicks and whistles.  They are very territorial, but they are so hungry at this time of year, that they will share the feeders pretty well.

See more images here of the birds and blooms from 2015.

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